1984 K30 "C4" Truggy on Rockwells

[Kay86K5]

I moved on to the steering. I got the ram mount from my brother for free. I had to modify it a smidge for my application with leafs and I also added the bracing up onto the housing for extra security since this things will most likely act as a skid plate on rocks. And getting the double ended surplus center ram mock'd up

 

[Kay86K5]

Then got the axle side of the steering all buttoned up, and cycled the steering to make sure things were looking good. A few more small adjustments, but overall I like how it turned out

 

[Kay86K5]

Then I finished up the rest of the steering. Got a DIY4x orbital mount, orbital, steering column adapter, all the hydro lines, and also a steering u-joint to attached the orbital column adapter to the factory steering shaft. So steering is pretty much done

 

[Kay86K5]

And that brings us to pretty much where it sits today. Cooling is done, brakes are done but still a ways to go. Still have to do the fuel system so I can fire the motor, then do the trans/tcase setup, driveshafts, and finish up the wiring. That'll at least get it going, then I plan on doing an exo-cage integrated into a tube bed.

The name "C4" is coming from my brother when he kept calling it the Chevy Crew Cab Crawler and was sick of the long name so called it the C4. In the end this thing has been a blast to build so far. And I know this seems like it happened overnight but it's been a full year since I bought it, so it's been a while and it's still not done. And really the only real money that's started to be spent on it was when I picked up the motor and also doing the steering. So it'll take quite a bit of money to get it going, but as it sits now, not a lot of money has been spent on it, but it's been fun and I'm hoping it'll be really cool when it's all said and done. But if anyone has any questions, let me know

 

[mrk5]

I thought I had a big crew cab...

 

[Kay86K5]

I thought I had a big crew cab...

Yours is still longer

 

[mrk5]

Good thing @Bent77 and @6872xtc are in Moab or this would go sideways quick.

 

[6872xtc]

Good thing @Bent77 and @6872xtc are in Moab or this would go sideways quick.

Like we are the only ones to ever derail a thread?
And we were busy dealing with other sidetracks..
Looks like a cool build!

 

[GWeakland620]

Glad you put the build on here Steve. Your style of builds have always been pretty much on point to what I would do with any 4x4 builds. As soon as my shop gets done, it's game on. Wife told me as long as my projects are in the shop, she doesn't care how many I have.

Sounds like my DD's are going to be parked outside for eternity...

 

[Kay86K5]

Glad you put the build on here Steve. Your style of builds have always been pretty much on point to what I would do with any 4x4 builds. As soon as my shop gets done, it's game on. Wife told me as long as my projects are in the shop, she doesn't care how many I have.

Sounds like my DD's are going to be parked outside for eternity...

Thanks

Haha, I feel ya. I wanted to make room for this project so I could work on it in the winter so I bought one of those porta-garages that I have the blazer in right now. After this one is going I honestly contemplated either parting out or straight up selling the blazer, but my wife told me to keep it so my kids can have something to drive soon when we go wheeling, since my oldest is 9 and in Idaho you can get a license at 15...plus I think deep down inside my wife wants to keep driving the blazer, she loves driving it every time she's gotten the opportunity. That's the beauty of having a dedicated off-road rig is that it costs me nothing to have it sit around, even if it doesn't get used for a while.

 

[GWeakland620]

Thanks

Haha, I feel ya. I wanted to make room for this project so I could work on it in the winter so I bought one of those porta-garages that I have the blazer in right now. After this one is going I honestly contemplated either parting out or straight up selling the blazer, but my wife told me to keep it so my kids can have something to drive soon when we go wheeling, since my oldest is 9 and in Idaho you can get a license at 15...plus I think deep down inside my wife wants to keep driving the blazer, she loves driving it every time she's gotten the opportunity. That's the beauty of having a dedicated off-road rig is that it costs me nothing to have it sit around, even if it doesn't get used for a while.

Yeah, I have this really strong desire to follow this build with my white crew cab. It would be so much fun offroad. I need to find another crew cab to chop up since I'm changing directions a bit on my K5.

 

[warrpath4x4]

that was a hell of a deal for $1500 to start with, i like where you have taken it.

 

[Chevy350Ben]

Crew cab? Rockwells? Im in

 

[Kay86K5]

A little fuel cell mock up along with a platform to act as the bottom of the “bed”. I added a couple straps made outta quarter inch for under the bed (as seen in last pic) to give it a little more weight capacity for storage and stuff.

 

[Truckman4life]

You forgot to add a B&W turnover ball for when the tow rig is down and you need to haul the old fifth wheel.

 

[GWeakland620]

You forgot to add a B&W turnover ball for when the tow rig is down and you need to haul the old fifth wheel.

Double like

 

[Kay86K5]

You forgot to add a B&W turnover ball for when the tow rig is down and you need to haul the old fifth wheel.

Haha, for sure not needed on this build. But I still need to install a turnover ball on my blue tow rig. That’s on the list at some point

 

[mrk5]

I'm intrigued with the way you shortened the wheel base. I'm currently running 2.5" shackle flip brackets. I'm thinking a 4" set could be mounted where you put yours and be the same. Been thinking about some new evolution of my crew cab.

 

[Kay86K5]

I'm intrigued with the way you shortened the wheel base. I'm currently running 2.5" shackle flip brackets. I'm thinking a 4" set could be mounted where you put yours and be the same. Been thinking about some new evolution of my crew cab.

It was really easy the way I did the frame shortening. I just cutoff the factory front brackets for the rear springs and moved them exactly 28" forward on the frame and bolted them back up. In doing it that way, it made it that the 4" flip brackets still bolted up right after the factory frame curves up to go over the rear axle in stock form (which is the same height as where the rear shackle brackets are on the frame anyways). You can see from the below pic, that yes the brackets aren't perfectly in line with the top of the frame because where I ended up bolting them up the frame is still narrowing a little bit, but it's totally fine. Plus, as you can see form the other picture, it ended up landing where the original rear bump stop bolted to the bottom of the frame which made it perfect for the bottom part of the flip brackets. And I also just have 6" cross-tied shackles. Then I just cutoff the excess frame behind the shackle flip and added a crossmember outta 2x4 square tubing. I will probably need to add at least a 1" ez inch or something to the rear to get it to match the front height, but I'm gonna wait to do that until after I get the rest of the drivetrain in and a bit more weight on it to make sure it's correct.

Like I said at the beginning of this thread, this thing did originally have a crappy 4" lift on it with blocks rear and cheap 4" lift springs in the front. I did the rear frame shortening/shackle flip before doing anything with the front, and it was still perfect in line on height with the 4" lift springs that were in the front. So you can take that info how you'd like to figure out if you can still use your 2.5" shackle flip, or if you want to go to 4" flip brackets.

If you end up getting a different truck that does more of the tow/haul duty, I think if you turned yours into a Cousin Willard replica with wheelbase shortening like this, and a functional tube bed (like Cousin Willard) it would be such a cool rig. That's kinda what I was thinking with this thing, other than just bigger with rockwells

 

[Kay86K5]

Got pretty much all the fueling plumbed. I always forget how annoying it is to put together stainless braided flexible fuel hose with AN fittings until I have to do it again...but man does it always look good and clean when done. Tank is a 19 gal fuel cell, all lines are 6an, and I did an inline fuel pump with a 100 micron pre filter and a 40 micron post filter up to a EFI rated fuel pressure regulator that is a return style. I still have to wire up the pump and do a few more other wiring items, then it’s see if I can get it to fire up